They say that you need "fair weather" to see the Fairweather range of mountains in Glacier Bay and we got better than that with clear blue skies and calm seas to create photogenic reflections of the landscape. We started our exploration of Glacier Bay National Park at Johns Hopkins Glacier, seeing the immensity of the landscape from sea level up to the 15,300 ft peak of Mount Fairweather. Then it was on to Margerie Glacier where we paused to watch the glacier calve while sipping Bloody Marys! As we meandered our way south we were lucky enough to spot a lone coastal brown bear munching the grasses on the edge of the shoreline. Given that it was quite close to Gloomy Knob we could see the mountain goats resting in the shade while we still watched the bear.
As if that wasn’t enough, a group of harbor porpoises swum by slowly with the silt from the glaciers allowing us to see their bodies under water and predict when they would surface next. At South Marble Island, the hunt was on for horned puffins, the more elusive of the 2 types of puffins we generally see there. A group were spotted as we spent the next few minutes watching them fly in circles beside the island.
We finished the day at Bartlett Cove where we stretched our legs after a day on the ship and learned about the history of the native people of Glacier Bay.
